1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ventilator mask.
2. Discussion of Background Information
In medical air supply, patients with a wide variety of respiratory problems are supplied by ventilation systems with air or with oxygen by means of devices that supply the air or an air mixture as a respiratory gas to the nose and/or the mouth. In this regard, the contact interface between the hoses supplying an air mixture and the respiratory openings of the person or other organism (since animals may also sometimes be supplied with respiratory gas) plays an important role.
This interface is usually realized as a ventilator mask that covers only the nose, only the mouth, or both the nose and the mouth, is preferably fastened on the head by flexible straps, and has one or two hose connections. The patient must wear the ventilator mask on his face for hours, overnight, or even for a period of several days, which means that great demands are placed on wearing comfort. Complaints due to pressure points on parts of the face, especially the bridge of the nose, are a burden on the patient. In addition, there is the problem of adjusting the size of the masks to different facial and nasal characteristics of different patients.
To solve both the comfort problem and the size problem, ventilator masks have been developed which comprise a bell-shaped structure that covers the respiratory passages and is adapted to the shape of the face, which can also be referred to as the upper part of the mask or the mask rim, which is made of a flexible material, preferably a skin-compatible silicone, a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), or polyurethane and is designed to be elastic, and has an inwardly formed peripheral edge that consists of contact lips. The upper part of the mask is intended to serve as the contact surface of the ventilator mask on the face of the patient and thus forms a sealing contact between the ventilator mask and the face.
A gel rim from the prior art is produced from a gel that is enclosed in a protective PU foil. An additional silicone cover lies between the patient's face and the PU gel body. The wall thicknesses of the PU foil and the silicone cover are kept essentially constant.
WO 2005/094928 A1 describes a ventilation device with a ventilator mask, which has a gel rim inserted in the upper part of the mask. The gel rim acts on the lips of the upper part of the mask and thus applies more pressure to parts of the face. This is also intended to provide a better seal in order to allow more precise and economical operation of the air supply system. The gel rim is formed with an essentially uniform thickness. It also has a part that presses against the region of the bridge of the nose. This makes it more difficult to adapt the upper part of the mask to the shape of the parts of the patient's face and makes it necessary to produce parts that are individually shaped for the patient. This makes production more complicated and thus more expensive.
Solutions of this type have the result that a large number of differently shaped mask upper parts must be offered to accommodate faces of different shapes and sizes if one does not wish to make sacrifices with respect to wearing comfort and the level of sealing that can be realized.